Heterotic M2-branes

We construct the action for N M2-branes on S1/Z2. The resulting theory has a gauge anomaly but this can be cancelled if the two fixed point planes each support 8 chiral Fermions in the fundamental of U(N). Taking the low energy limit leads to the worldsheet theory of N free heterotic strings whose q...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Neil Lambert
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2015-10-01
Series:Physics Letters B
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037026931500622X
Description
Summary:We construct the action for N M2-branes on S1/Z2. The resulting theory has a gauge anomaly but this can be cancelled if the two fixed point planes each support 8 chiral Fermions in the fundamental of U(N). Taking the low energy limit leads to the worldsheet theory of N free heterotic strings whose quantization induces an E8 spacetime gauge symmetry on each fixed point plane. Thus this paper presents a non-abelian worldvolume analogue of the classic Hořava–Witten analysis.
ISSN:0370-2693
1873-2445